Béria L,
Yes, I was heartened to see that the formula had changed in 2015. But the complexity of the algorithm made it hard to discern what the eventual impact and numbers were for US-based editors. If you have good stats on this, I’d appreciate a pointer.
Again, I agree that Wikimania should have massive outreach goal with the bulk of the scholarships should be used to recruit new key members to our community and evangelizing the mission outside the US. When I was based in Asia, I was a big advocate for Wikimania being a way to engage new language groups.
However, I wanted to push back against the oft-heard refrain that the US is “overly subsidized” when in fact most metrics show this is not the case.
Thanks! -Andrew
On Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 11:27 AM, Béria Lima berialima@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Andrew,
*For the last few years I’ve held my tongue as American applicants get a
fraction of 10% of all the funding for Wikimania scholarships.*
Actually you are looking at the old numbers. Both Wikimanias 2015 and 2016 uses a new method of selection. Now, the Global North*[1] *has 25% of all scholarships, and the Global South*[2]* has 75%. Now that you have to compete with most of the rich countries in the world. And is not all: If you get into the final 10% of the "cutoff",your place may be taken away by a woman (or transgender) or a Latino, since that is the policy now*[3]*.
And I for one agree with the new policy. The effort made by a European (or American, or Canadian) to travel to a Wikimania, is something like one month of salary. For a woman from the same place will probably be 2 months (pay gap at its finest!) and for a Latino, African, or Asiatic the effort starts at 6 months and go on to even a decade*[4]* (A full decade of your salary to go to Wikimania).
So no, I don't feel sorry that most of the scholarships don't go to Americans, I'm not denying that there is poor people in rich countries but the level of poverty is *way* too different.
Béria L . de Rodríguez (a Latino Woman 😉)
*References:*
[1]: Australia, Canada, Israel, Hong Kong, Macau, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States and all of Europe (including Russia, but excluding Turkey) (source https://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_South) [2]: Asia (with the exception of Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan), Turkey, Central America, South America, Mexico, Africa, and the Middle East (with the exception of Israel) (source https://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_South) [3]: For applicants within 10% of the "cutoff", preference will be* first* given to the* non-male* applicant, and *secondary* preference to applicants from* Latin America*.(source https://wikimania2015.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships#Selection_process
enfasis added by me) [4]: Venezuela for example has a exchange rate Bolivar-US dolar of 1026 BSF to 1 dolar. Their average salary is 9,500 BSF (about $ 9,00) at that pace their probability to attend Wikimania on their own tends to zero. (source for the exchange rate https://dolartoday.com/)
***Imagine um mundo onde é dada a qualquer pessoa a possibilidade de ter livre acesso ao somatório de todo o conhecimento humano. Ajude-nos a construir esse sonho.*
2016-02-10 13:43 GMT-02:00 Andrew Lih andrew.lih@gmail.com:
GerardM,
As much as I agree with you on many things related to Wikimania, your statement about en.wp and USA being “over subsidized” is off base.
For the last few years I’ve held my tongue as American applicants get a fraction of 10% of all the funding for Wikimania scholarships. That’s because 10% is allocated to all of North America, so US based folks
compete
with Canadians for that small slice of the pie. Indeed, key community members from the US could not afford to go to Wikimania, and did not, because of the limited funding. We also do not have a strong chapter
system
to make up for that shortcoming, where European chapters can, and do, underwrite their local members with other funds.
I am not against the bulk of the scholarship money going to underrepresented developing markets and giving new voices a chance to attend. But I wanted to dispel the myth that Americans are always gorging at the trough.
https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships#Scholarship_selection_...
https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships#Selection_process
-Andrew
On Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 6:49 AM, Gerard Meijssen < gerard.meijssen@gmail.com> wrote:
Hoi, Pine with all due respect, the USA is not the problem and English
Wikipedia
has been overly subsidised, given way too much attention. Indeed having more people from the USA attend Wikimania is not a good value
proposition.
The USA and Britain is overrepresented as it is. Thanks, GerardM
On 10 February 2016 at 10:13, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
From a US perspective, even here in the global north we have plenty
of
students and middle-class participants for whom $1500 in travel, food
and
lodging plus 5 days away from work, family, or school amounts to a significant or impossible sacrifice.
Perhaps someone could tell us the statistics for how many people have attended Wikimania each year who were not WMF employees, FDC or WMF
Board
members, scholarship recipients, or financially sponsored by WMF
affiliates
or WEF. Of those people who pay 100% of their own costs plus the cost
of
admission tickets, my guess is that many live within a day's travel
time
by
train, car, or bus.
I would hypothesize that thematic conferences also have a low
percentage
of
people who pay 100% of their own costs, but that regional conferences
which
have lower travel costs for the average attendee receive modestly
higher
percentages of unsubsidized attendance.
It seems to me that WMF finacial support for conferences, including regional and thematic conferences, will continue to be the norm.
Whether $1 million is appropriate for Wikimania and whether a more
modest
budget would be appropriate and feasable are different questions that
merit
careful reflection.
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